Europe 12 Sep 2013

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ACCA, as part of the President’s Debates series, is delighted to invite you to a high-level conference, which will gather policy experts to discuss proposals for a banking union and the way towards a solid and sustainable integrated financial framework. The event forms part of the programme of official events organised under the Presidency of Lithuania of the European Council.

Despite some signs of improvement of the global economic conditions, recovery remains fragile and the Eurozone is still exposed to difficulties. However, lessons have been drawn from the financial crisis. They namely show that the Eurozone, because of the interconnectedness of its financial institutions and markets, requires a stronger institutional framework to safeguard financial stability and avoid problems in the financial sector which one country could spread to another. To address this, in 2012, EU leaders committed to the creation of a banking union in order to contribute to a smoother functioning of the monetary union, minimise the cost of bank failures and restore confidence in the banking sector.

The Banking Union consists of the establishment of five complementary building blocks: a single rulebook, which exists already in a substantial way - the European Commission has proposed nearly 30 sets of rules since 2010; an EU framework for a single supervision mechanism , the SSM, currently underway; a Single Resolution Mechanism, the SRM, as proposed by the European Commission in July 2013, a financial backstop with the possibility of direct capitalisation of banks by European funds, and a common system of deposit protection.

The ACCA President’s Debate will discuss some of the issues at the heart of the banking union debate and look at how to set the architecture of a banking union that would be built on common EU standards, able to serve both Eurozone and non-eurozone EU member states.